When my Best Friend Saved the World
by Fish
Summary: Sure, the world turned to Ash--but what about Brock?


Pokemon belongs to Nintendo, 4Kids Entertainment, Warner Brothers, and Satoshi Tajiri. I am not   
profiting from the production of this fic. Feedback to fish_stomp@yahoo.com. Ben Weasel says "scree!"  
  
  
  
I sat and watched on the television while my best friend saved the world.  
  
God, did I feel helpless. Sure, I loved working with Ivy. She was brilliant, fun, inspired, and damn was   
she good looking. I thought I'd be content forever. After all, my existence was the stuff of dreams--I lived   
on an almost-deserted jungle island with a beautiful, intelligent woman doing what I was born to do, taking   
care of Pokemon.  
  
I was a little lonely when I left Ash and Misty. We'd been friends for a long time by then, travelling,   
getting into trouble, getting out of trouble. But I figured this peaceful world I now lived in would outweigh   
the fun of life on the road. For a while it did. I learned a lot about my chosen medium, Pokemon breeding,   
and I learned a lot more than I thought I would from Professor Ivy.  
  
I thought of my distant friends occasionally. It was just in passing though, like when someone asked for   
the ketchup. But I had decided to myself that I was going to love living on that island.  
  
Things were going fine for a while. And then the changes started taking place.  
  
The Pokemon grew restless, the weather made freakish changes with no provocation at all. Something was   
wrong.  
  
I ached to go out and find what was happening. I was practically dying to be out in the action. I begged   
Professor Ivy to let me go with her out to the Orange Islands, but she needed me to stay and take care of her   
lab.  
  
So I sat back and watched the news.   
  
To my surprise, I noticed Ash's mother in the background as the reporter interviewed Ivy and Oak. Then it   
dawned on me.   
  
Of course Ash would be in the middle of things! He had some weird sixth sense that always threw him   
right into the hub of the world's major problems, that allowed him to save the world when he was most   
needed. And, sure enough, when the reporter asked her why she was there, she started wailing about her   
poor lost little boy.  
  
Damn that kid. Damn him for being destined for greatness. Damn him for accidentally stumbling onto   
solutions that, to anyone else, would get him or her and the entire world disintegrated. Damn him for being   
lucky.  
  
With sinking feeling, I realized that, once again, Ash was going to save the day. And this time I couldn't   
help. It was like when I was young, when Mom was still alive, and her and Dad would throw parties for   
their friends. I wanted to be there in the party, too, but they always sent me to bed. I would sit in my room,   
my stomach tumbling and burbling from my frustration. I would sit and listen to the party going on   
downstairs, to the laughter and the fun that I wouldn't be a part of. It would upset me enough that I would   
start crying.   
  
When Mom heard me, she would come upstairs to check on me. She always asked me what was wrong,   
and every time my answer would be the same. I wanted to be a part of the party.  
  
And she would say, "Brock, sweetheart, some things just aren't meant to be."  
  
After she died and Dad ran off, I was just thirteen. I was an active teenager, I had friends, I had a   
promising future. But with this new life forced upon me, I had no choice in what I got to do.  
  
Instead of parties, I had battles for the Boulder badge. Instead of nights at the movies, I mended clothes   
and cleaned the house. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  
  
When I left with Ash, I knew my life was turning around. I felt like I had a purpose now. I was destined.  
  
It wasn't me. It was him all along, I realize now. He would have been great, he would have accomplished   
things just the same without me there.   
  
He has a destiny.  
  
God, I want a part of that. It's not meant to be, though.  
  
So, like I said, I watched the news intently for new developments. I heard of Ash's quest for the spheres,   
and of his freeing Lugia. No one else could have done that.   
  
I watched on the television as my best friend saved the world.  
  
Afterwards, the big publicity bash was about how all of this was foretold in a legend. "And thus, the world   
will turn to Ash."   
  
He even had his name in legends. Damn him. And he was such an easygoing, friendly kid, it was almost   
impossible to dislike him if you knew him.  
  
And now I'm here, waiting for Ivy to come back from the huge party in Pallet Town. The whole city was   
done up in honor of Ash's brief homecoming after he saved the world. Apparently, they're going to have   
some yearly festival in honor of him. He's going to be impossible after that, and I pity Misty for having to   
live with him.  
  
As things return to normal, though, I am seized by an incredible longing for my old life. I want to travel, I   
want to be followed by the entire world. I want my daily tasks recorded and posted for the planet to peruse   
over coffee in the morning. I want the fame that follows Ash Ketchum like the plague.   
  
So, I'm thinking next week I'll tell the Professor I'm leaving. She'll be upset, I'm sure, but… I can't live   
my life all the time feeling that there's some big party going on and I've been sent to bed. I don't care if   
it's meant to be.   
  
I will help my best friend save the world again and again. I will make it my destiny.  
  



End file.
